How to Wow tips

I have just finished reading Francis Cole Jones' "How to Wow" book. It's not normally a book I would have chosen to read but I belong to a book group and this was highly recommended to me.

Her tips can be related to any part of your life and is especially relevant in a Job Search situation as it's all about selling yourself.

Here are some highlights:

1. You is the most persuasive word in the English language. Use it regularly.

2. When you are asked a difficult question in an interview situation, pause, inhale and then speak on exhalation. This gives your voice more authority.

3. When you give people the "because" behind why you are making a request you increase the possibility of co-operation from 60 o 94%.

4. Sit up and forward in your chair at the interview, 55% of your impact comes from what your body is doing whilst you are talking.

5. More people will trust you when they can see your hands. Always keep your hands on the table during the interview and out of your pockets when standing up.

6. Introducing yourself is a presentation! Think about your introduction and be genuine. If you are going to say "Hello, my name is Heidi, I'm pleased to meet you", really sound happy to meet them and sincere.

7. Never underestimate the power of a well worded thank you note, this will make you stand out from the other candidates.

These are just a few of the take-aways that I got. As you can see Frances' ideas can be related to any part of your life.

What makes a Good Boss - Great?

I love this clip from the charity Working Families as they took to the streets of London to find out what makes a good boss and more importantly what makes a good boss great.

I think the guy in the final clip has the best answer, when asked what makes a good boss great, he said "his staff".

I will always hold one of my bosses, Keith Thomas in absolute reverence as he inspired me more than any other individual ever has.

Never trust a fire drill in Singapore

I was sent this by a customer, I'm not sure if it's true or not but as I have worked in the Far East this kind of behaviour would not surprise me.

THIS IS TRUE AND TOOK PLACE IN SINGAPORE

A fire alarm, in a large office building, rang at 4 p.m. when almost all of the company's 500 employees were at work.

As usual in such circumstances the entire office was evacuated within 3 mins & every employee gathered outside.

Nothing happened for ten minutes or so and there was no evidence of a fire.

Then the firms Security Officer made an announcement ...

"Dear employees, with melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you will be your last fire evacuation drill. Due to the recession the company are laying off almost fifty percent of staff. When you move back into the building some of you will discover that your swipe passcard will no longer give you access to the office. If you are among those laid off, go home and all your belongings will be couriered to you tomorrow. The management took this approach to save on overloading the email system with layoff notifications and goodbye messages and also to avoid any violent outbursts inside the office. Hope you have a nice career ahead ... please move forward and try your swipe card."

Updated Shift Happens.

A few years ago I posted a youtube clip called "Shift Happens", I came across this updated version which is just as captivating.

Is this the Best Job Ever?

Tweet, Drink and get paid $10k per month.

A Winery in California is offering you the chance of living rent free, learning about wines and then sharing your experiences with your Twitter network for a fantastic salary of $10k per month.

Would you give up your career in our industry to take on this ideal job or do you think it's marketing gone mad.

Read the full article here.

Great Marketing from a Packaging Design Company

The One Centre who are an Australian Brand Positioning Company have unlocked the power of McDonald's packaging as a media vehicle with a new range that tells a fresh food story.

It's refreshing to see this type of marketing being utilised in our sector, but I struggled to find anything like this from a UK based Company... maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

A fantastic (but not recommended) way to get a new job

Came across this video on Andy Headworth's Blog which amused me this morning.

George Thompson - The People's champion

If you click on this image you can read the article in full!

One of the pleasures of a weekend is being able to spend a few hours on a Sunday morning having a fresh coffee and reading the newspapers, I put my little boy in front of the television and have some "me" time.

My husband always buys the Sunday Mail (a leading Scottish Sunday paper) for the sport. I picked it up to have a quick flick through for some good news and there on page 6 was a face I recognised, George Thompson, the owner of Harrison Scott Associates.
If you click on the picture you can read the full story which appeared on page 6 and page 16 of the Sunday Mail, but in short, George Thompson plans to sue Sir Fred Goodwin for his share of taxes used to save the RBS. George will be getting his Accountant to quantify the losses he has incurred and taking his claim to the small claims court.

If George wins his case, he will be donating any gains to charity. This demonstrates it's not about his personal desires it's about principles.

Go George go! If he wins he will become "The People's Champion".

An example of an appalling sales approach

Don't get me wrong I am all for prospecting for new clients and using many different routes to find leads but I think one of our competitors "PrintWeek" have gone too far.

Yesterday one of PrintWeek's sales people registered as a job seeker on our job board, she then proceeded to apply to one of our advertisers with the following in the cover note section.

"Hi My name is Hannah and I am contacting you from PrintWeek magazine. I have seen that you are recruiting for a National Sales Exectuive, and I am quite suprised that this role is not being advertised with us. PrintWeek and Printing World are the market leading magazines for the Printing Industry with 99% of the marketshare We currently hold 64.48% marketshare online. (Stats are by HitWise, an independent organisation) Please call me, and we can discuss some oppotunities further. my telephone number is .... alternatively, you can email me. I look forward to your call Kind Regards Hannah Executive Recruitment Sales"

Our customer contacted us to let us know that he had received this and notified us that he had contacted Hannah directly to express his disappointment.

Now I could rip her sales pitch apart but I am far too professional to do this. The only thing I will pull her up on is to make sure you have spell checked any sales literature as it makes you look even more incompetent.

So many of todays sales people don't do any research to find out more about organisations before they approach them. This email highlights that she simply fired off an email without any thought and preparation. Surely you don't need to send sales approaches through your competition because you can't be bothered to get the customer's email address directly.

Things must be tough at PrintWeek if they are resorting to these subterfuge sales tactics.

Qualities of my ideal salesperson

Sales people have always been in demand and are needed more than ever now as the only thing that is going to get us all out of this recession is to sell more!

If you put 10 people in a room and asked them what their opinion is of a great sales person, you would get many varying qualities.

Of course a lot will depend on your individual business need, culture and management style. I would actively encourage anyone looking for sales people to conduct an internal audit to profile their needs in a sales person first.

Once you have defined your specific requirements you should also be armed with what to look for in terms of qualities of a fantastic sales person. I have interviewed and hired many sales people in my time and this is my personal list of qualities that I look for.

Integrity - honesty and trustworthiness are the most important quality you want in a sales person.

High Energy levels - sales is a predominantly a numbers game and you need someone with high energy levels who will make that last call at 4.30pm on a Friday afternoon.

High Ability to learn - a successful sales person will be able to evaluate any situation and modify his/her behaviour accordingly. A high performer will also want to continually learn new sales skills.

Ability to build positive business relationships - sales is more than anything else, the activity of developing relationships with quantities of people which result in those people trusting the sales person.

Personal Motivation - There is something inside a fantastic sales person that makes them want to excel. Whilst they may enjoy the fringe benefits a monetary compensation package will bring, they are motivated by a will to be the very best.

These are the qualities that I personally look for, I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has other ideas.